A TERRIFIED teenager is afraid to leave her house after she was sexually assaulted at knifepoint while waiting for a bus.

Christina McLean, aged 19, has courageously spoken to the Bury Times about her ordeal which happened beside the busy Rochdale Road, outside the gates to Openshaw Park.

She has waived her right to anonymity in a bid to help catch the “dangerous” attacker who followed her home before pouncing. The vulnerable teenager, who lives with her parents and 21-year-old brother, says she is too scared to leave her home because she is plagued by the image of her attacker.

“I picture him all the time,” she said. “I haven’t been able to sleep because every time I shut my eyes, I can see him in my mind. I can’t leave the house, except to go in the garden, and all I can do is sit and cry.”

Her ordeal followed an evening at a friend’s house in Brandlesholme when she decided to return home to collect an overnight bag.

She said: “I go to my friend’s house once or twice a week to get away from things. I always walk the same way, sometimes a lot later at night, and I never thought anything of it.”

She got off a bus at Bury Interchange at 8.30pm on March 17, and starting to walk along Lord Street, towards Asda, when she noticed a white Ford car driving closely behind.

She turned on to Rochdale Road and headed towards Wash Lane, but the car was still trailing her and, feeling concerned, she called into a corner shop to alert the owner.

She arrived home safely where she told her parents what had happened.

About an hour later, her father walked her to the bus stop so she could return to her friend’s house as planned.

Christina said: “My dad can’t go out much because he has recently been diagnosed with cancer and is very poorly but he was calling into the Turf pub to make arrangements for a friend’s funeral the next day so we walked back down Wash Lane together.

“There is a footpath at the side of the pub which leads on to Rochdale Road so I left him in the pub and headed to the bus stop because I thought I would be safe near the main road.”

Christina had been waiting at the bus stop opposite the Roach Hotel pub for a few minutes when the same car reappeared.

“It drove past me about four or five times and I was feeling nervous so I starting pacing up and down the road, between bus stops. But then the car pulled up outside the park gates and a man got out.”

The attacker pulled out a knife and pushed Christina against the railings, pressing the weapon into her throat before he sexually assaulted her.

“I just froze and shut my eyes,” she said. “I was so scared and I didn’t know what was happening. All I was thinking was that someone would come and help me, but no one came.”

Petrified, she managed to bite her attacker’s arm and wrestle free from his grasp, forcing him to get back in the car and drive off.

After collapsing to the ground in a state of shock, Christina was helped to her feet by a teenage boy and girl.

They then walked her back to the Turf pub to find her father and police were called.

Christina said: “The worrying thing is, I look a lot younger then 19. Me and my older brother have a growth problem which means I actually look about 13-year-old, my body is like a little girl’s.

“My dad is having a really hard time because he blames himself for what has happened and he has enough problems without this. It is not his fault. It is nobody’s fault other than the man who did it.”

The offender was described as Asian, aged in his mid-20s and of a skinny build, with a shaved head and a birthmark above one of his eyes.

He was wearing a black top with a blue denim jacket and blue denim jeans.

The car was a distinctive white Ford, possibly an old-style Mondeo, which had a red driver’s door and an unusual yellow sticker with black foreign writing in the back window.

Police are appealing for a man to come forward who was seen sitting outside the Roach Hotel at the time of the incident and may have witnessed the attack.

Christina also recalls a car parked outside a house about three doors down from the Roach Hotel with its engine running.

DC Donna Haldane, of Bury’s public protection unit, said: “While attacks like this are rare, the way this man has targeted this young woman is extremely worrying, and we are determined to find and arrest him.

“Thankfully, the victim wasn’t seriously injured by this man. But she has been left badly traumatised.”

Christina, who is currently unemployed and awaiting an eye operation, is urging girls to be extra vigilant and walk in groups.

“You never think it will happen to you,” she said. “I have been doing that journey for two years. I know the route like the back of my hand and I never thought anything like this would happen to me.”

Anyone with any information should call Bury police on 0161 856 8185 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.